Why Stress Might Be The Cause Of Your Hormonal Symptoms

Have you noticed that in the past couple of years you are FEELING your PMS or experiencing hormonal symptoms in different ways?

This is not uncommon and it does not necessarily mean that your hormones are failing you. One of the biggest reasons why your periods (namely your PMS) might be worse is because of stress. Yes I know - stress is a trigger word these days. It seems to be the “reason” for everything. The truth is we live in a world where our baseline is chronically stressed. While that may not feel bad on a daily basis it does not mean that it isn’t having huge, unseen impacts on our bodies.

Cortisol & Our Stress Response

Our stress hormone cortisol is not meant to be high all day. It is meant to rise in the morning and then fluctuate throughout the day as needed and fall at night. This keeps our body running normally. When it goes high in moments of stress it changes the functioning of our body so that we are able to “get through” the stressful moment. Our body has one physiologic stress response whether we are running from a bear, stuck in a tsunami, writing an exam, in a fight with a friend or just feeling anxious. In those moments our body primes itself to survive.

This means that it takes the energy away from our nonessential survival systems and puts them into our essential survival systems. This means that it takes energy away from our reproductive system, digestive system, and immune system and puts it into giving us acute energy - it sharpens our focus, it sends glucose into our bloodstream - it literally prepares us to either run or fight. This is very helpful in the short term.

Living With High Baseline Stress

When we live with high baseline stress (as most of us do), cortisol stays elevated longer, and it keeps the stress response in play. It doesn’t let our nonessential survival systems (hormones, digestion, immune health) get all the energy they deserve, and it keeps those essential ones running on high alert. So, it likely doesn’t come as a huge shock that when we are perpetually stressed, and in a chronic state of fight or flight, many of us begin to experience changes with our reproductive hormones, our cycles, and our normal hormonal shifts.

How Stress Actually Impacts Our Hormones

Of course during this pandemic your body was hit with just one too many stressors on top of your normal baseline stress and your body is showing it in your reproductive system. No wonder PMS and periods feel bad right now!

The impacts of stress on our hormonal symptoms and hormonal imbalances manifests in 3 major ways:

acute stress & minimal symptoms

As described above, when we are in acute stress our body wants to survive and it therefore shuts down all nonessential survival systems, including our reproductive system. Since our bodies are primed to make it through our stressor as efficiently as possible, it is likely that in that time we won’t always notice the physical symptoms that are happening in our body. Our bodies are also incredibly resilient, and we may not develop hormonal symptoms at all if the stressor is shorter-term. At most we might feel more fatigued or anxious than usual. Physical effects often are only felt once the stressor has either passed or has persisted longer-term. Interestingly, symptoms can manifest months or even years later.

changes to the hypothalamus & pituitary gland

When cortisol is chronically elevated, this starts to change the function of our hypothalamus and our pituitary gland. The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland serve as the ‘regulators’ of our entire hormonal cycle. They dictate when we ovulate and when we get our periods. When cortisol is persistently elevated, the hypothalamus and pituitary gland downregulate estrogen production, which can lead to anovulatory cycles, AKA cycles where we don’t ovulate, often manifesting as skipped or delayed periods, and significant hormonal imbalances. Additionally, chronic cortisol activation also primes the hypothalamus to release norepinephrine to the ovaries which also produces anovulatory cycles and can cause the ovaries to develop cysts, similar to what we see in PCOS.

inability to handle hormonal shifts

Last but not least, although we’re not quite sure what is biochemically going on in the body, it seems that when we are under higher amounts of stress, we are unable to handle hormonal shifts in the same way. Think about when you are extremely overwhelmed with work, and maybe someone asks you to do something, and this small thing just causes you to break down. That one new task is just one too many things to handle for your already overwhelmed system. This seems to be what is happening to us internally under high stress as well. The hormonal shifts are just too much for us to handle when stress and cortisol levels are chronically elevated. Research has found that higher perceived stress actually precedes an increased severity of PMS symptoms. Other research is starting to uncover links between cortisol levels and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) as well. While we still have a lot to learn here, it seems that our hormonal shifts are just too much for our already overburdened system to handle!

How To Treat Hormones as a Result of Chronic Stress

In each of these situations the resulting symptoms are hormonal in nature, but the nature of the problem is really from our stress and our dysregulated stress hormone, cortisol. Therefore, to help normalize these hormonal symptoms we need to treat adrenal health, stress resiliency, cortisol levels, and we need to help modulate the overall stress response rather than ‘fix’ your reproductive hormones themselves.

In Naturopathic Medicine there are various ways that we can do that:

Various herbs known as adaptogens can actually help to replenish the energy to our bodies that has been depleted by chronic stress. They work by modulating and regulating our cortisol levels and stress response appropriately. Some of our favourites include Ashwagandha and Rhodiola. While there are many more, and while each herb works on our stress response a little differently, an ND can help you find exactly the right herbs to support you based on your health history.
Supplementing with various vitamins and minerals to help support healthy adrenal gland function such as magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C, and more can also be of benefit.
Supporting a healthy cortisol and circadian rhythm through lifestyle changes such as creating routines in your day that support cortisol levels in the morning and melatonin levels at night; supporting regular sleep and wake times; supporting regular meal timing and proper nutrition; and finally, helping you to create the right exercise and/or activity plan for you so that your cortisol levels are nice and balanced.

Supporting Stress & Hormones With Naturopathic Medicine

There are so many ways that we can help you and your hormones feel better when you have been under chronic stress! If you have been struggling with chronic stress, PMS/PMDD, and/or hormonal changes and want to learn more about how naturopathic medicine can help support you, you can book a complimentary consult with me here.